Venusse Navid

Staff Writer

Recent articles

Police

Joy Diamond flattened out the dog-eared Huntington Memorial Hospital visitor’s sticker she refused to remove from her shirt. Her son, Pomona police Officer Shaun Diamond, had died earlier Wednesday morning, but in her mind, the sticker kept him alive if only for a little longer.“When I take this off, it’s real,” she said, patting the peeling sticker. “When I put this on, I still had my son.”The law enforcement officer of 19 years...

Law enforcement technology

Simulated office, school, and movie theater shootings, traffic stops, hostage incidents, and domestic violence scenes are a few scenarios depicted in the Los Angeles County Sheriff Department’s new “Shoot Don’t Shoot” virtual training exercise.The VirTra V-300 police training simulator uses multiple screens wrapped around deputies to immerse them in one of more than 100 scenarios that they can encounter on the field.The latest technology is part of...

Breaking News

Actress Amanda Bynes, 28, Friday was placed on psychiatric hold in Pasadena after she made bizarre statements on Twitter.Bynes landed at Los Angeles International Airport on Friday and was expecting to meet her parents and lawyer at a hotel, but instead was driven to a hospital in Pasadena and placed on a 72-hour psychiatric hold, according to TMZ.Early Friday, Bynes wrote numerous tweets accusing her father of sexually assaulting...

News

A man wearing a Darth Vader mask frightened Gas Company workers Tuesday by pounding on a wrought iron fence with a machete, Los Angeles County Sheriff’s officials said.Deputies responded to a petty-theft call around 10:30 a.m. after the workers accused the unidentified man in his 20s of picking up an item from their truck in the 7770 block of Danby Avenue, Pico Rivera Station Sgt. Raymond Cardenas said.“(The man) took a rubber mallet from the back of (Gas Company)...

Disaster planning and response

With the ever-present threat of violence in our country, local emergency personnel prepared Wednesday by participating in an active shooter drill at the Norwalk AMC Theatre.About 75 first responders from Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Special Enforcement Bureau, deputies from Norwalk and Pico Rivera stations, Cerritos College Police officers, Los Angeles County firefighters and emergency medical technicians suited up in emergency gear and conducted various mock shooting scenarios...

Crime News

NORWALK >> Sheriff’s homicide detectives are investigating the discovery of fetal human remains, officials said.Coroner’s spokesman Ed Winter said the remains were found by a plumber cleaning a stopped drain in an apartment in the 12100 block of Sproul Street Tuesday night.The fetus’ gender is unknown. Winter said an autopsy hasn’t been scheduled. “Homicide detectives, at this time, do not have enough information to determine if...

Shootings

NORWALK - Sheriff’s homicide detectives are investigating the fatal shooting of a man who was found collapsed on a street Monday.Authorities haven’t identified the victim as of Tuesday.Deputies went to the 12700 block of Rexton Street at around 3:45 p.m. Monday on “a person down” call. They saw paramedics treating a man with a gunshot wound, according to Deputy Amber Smith in a statement.Witnesses told investigators they heard arguing and a...

Crime News

Police on Monday arrested two students suspected of planning a mass school shooting that targeted teachers and students at South Pasadena High School.School officials reported the suspected plot to police on Thursday, but did not say how they learned of it. The pair had been under surveillance since the report, South Pasadena police Sgt. Brian Solinsky said.He would not elaborate on the plans or what form they took, but Solinsky said they were “very specific” and...

Automotive accidents

SOUTH EL MONTE >> A young child was fatally injured early Thursday and 13 other people were hurt in a fiery, 11-vehicle crash on the eastbound 60 Freeway at Santa Anita Avenue, authorities said.Maydelin Salas, 5, of South El Monte died at a hospital shortly after the wreck, Los Angeles County Department of Coroner Assistant Chief of Operations Ed Winter said.She was riding as the left, rear passenger in a 2004 Nissan minivan that was struck from behind by a tanker truck...

Occupational accidents

A Los Angeles County Sheriff’s employee is in critical stable condition Thursday after he fell from the roof of the department’s four-story headquarter’s building on Wednesday, Monterey Park Police officials said.The unidentified 49-year-old maintenance worker, who was assigned to the department’s headquarters, fell about 45-feet around 1:13 p.m. at 4700 Ramona Road, officials said.Sgt. Frank Duke said the man sustained major internal injuries from...